Paul Aasen sworn in as Minneapolis City Coordinator

Paul Aasen was sworn in Tuesday, May 15 as the new City Coordinator for the City of Minneapolis. Aasen has 25 years of experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and he served most recently as commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Mayor R.T. Rybak nominated Aasen for the role of City Coordinator on May 1, and the City Council approved his appointment at its May 11 meeting.

The Minneapolis City Coordinator is a key advisor to the Mayor and City Council on strategic planning, budget development and policy decisions. The City Coordinator drives the City’s results-management agenda, the cornerstone of which is Results Minneapolis, in which every City department sets measurable performance goals and then tracks and reports progress towards achieving those goals.

In addition, the coordinator is the chief administrator for Minneapolis City government’s enterprise operations and priorities, including the City’s finance operations, intergovernmental relations work, neighborhood and community relations, sustainability initiatives, communications and public affairs, human resources, and 311 and 911 operations.

In his years of public service, Aasen worked at the State of Minnesota under three governors of three political parties. He worked as commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for Governor Mark Dayton from 2011 to 2012. He also served as director of government relations and policy under Governor Jesse Ventura from 2000 to 2003. Before that time, he was an assistant commissioner of the Department of Public Safety under Governor Ventura from 1999 to 2000. He also served as director of the Division of Emergency Management from 1998 to 1999 and the executive director of the Minnesota Emergency Response Commission under Governor Carlson from 1992 to 1998.

Aasen has also worked in the nonprofit and private sectors. He served as executive vice president of Global Volunteers from 2004 to 2007, advocacy director of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy from 2007 to 2011, and as the principal of Independent Strategic Consulting from 2003 to 2004.

He began his career in 1986 as an environmental scientist at the Metropolitan Waste Control Commission. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota, the latter from the School of Public Health.